Phase locked loop circuitry with digital loop filter

Abstract

 The invention relates to a phase-locked loop circuit comprising a phase detector, loop filter and an oscillator. The loop filter is implemented digitally instead of by means of analog components, thus requiring a digital to analog converter between the loop filter and the oscillator. The chip area required for such a digital loop filter is substantially smaller than an analog equivalence and can be implemented on a single integrated circuit die together with an oscillator, phase detector and possible counters. There is thus no need for the use of external components, greatly simplifying the design and manufacture of the circuit, and having reduced assemblage costs. Further, by means of the digital filter the loop dynamics are also easily changed. The digital to analog converter of the invention can be implemented in various ways. The invention also relates to a method for controlling the oscillator of such phase-locked loop circuit.

Description

Field of the invention

[0001] The invention generally relates to phase locked loop circuitry and to a method for controlling an oscillator in such circuitry.

Background of the invention

[0002] A phase locked loop (PLL) is a closed-loop feedback control system maintaining a generated signal in a fixed phase relationship to a reference signal, and is widely used in electronic devices, such as radio receivers and transmitters. Figure 1 is a block diagram illustrating schematically the different parts of a typical PLL. The PLL 1 generally comprises a phase detector 2, a filter section 3 and a voltage-controlled oscillator (VCO) 4. There may further be a divider 5 or a divide-by-N counter in the feedback path in order to make the output of the PLL a multiple of a reference signal. The phase detector 2 receives a reference signal S_ref and an oscillator signal S_osc as inputs, and its function is to compare the phases of these signals and cause the filter section 3 to change a control voltage in order to raise or lower the frequency (and hence the phase) of the oscillator 4. The output from the phase detector 2 is a control signal or error signal S_error, which is a function of the phase difference between the input reference signal S_ref and the oscillator signal S_osc. The filter section 3 comprises an integrator for accomplishing the speeding up or slowing down of the oscillator frequency. The integrator is conventionally implemented using a charge pump and a loop filter capacitor for low-pass filtering the output control signal.

[0003] In microelectronics, the voltage controlled oscillator 2, the divider 5 and the phase detector 2 are often integrated on a single chip and the filter section 3 or loop filter is sometimes integrated on chip and sometimes placed externally to the chip as discrete components. An exemplary prior art layout of the filter section 3 or loop filter is shown in figure 2. The analog loop filter 3 comprises analog components such as resistors R and capacitors C. The loop filter 3 performs an integration function, which is as mentioned above often implemented by means of a charge pump and a loop filter capacitor. Such loop filter capacitors generally need to be rather large and require therefore a substantial area on the chip.

[0004] There are several drawbacks related to such loop filters. The chip area required if implementing the loop filter on a single chip is relatively large, mainly due to the above mentioned loop capacitors. If placed outside the chip as separate components, it adds to the overall bill of material (BOM). Further, if a frequency modulation is added to the voltage controlled oscillator care has to be taken to compensate for the loop filter dynamics, as is well known within the field. Analog components have some tolerances and it is often tedious and time consuming to trim a loop filter to the required application, entailing for example measurements of the loop filter response and calibration of the frequency modulated signal.

[0005] It would thus be desirable to provide an improved phase locked loop circuit, having a reduced size and in which the calibration of the loop filter dynamics is facilitated.

Summary of the invention

[0006] An object of the invention is to provide a phase locked loop circuit having an improved filter section with reduced space requirements and having a layout enabling simplified manufacturing thereof, thereby overcoming or at least alleviating the shortcomings of the prior art.

[0007] It is a further object of the invention to provide a flexible and easily manipulated phase locked loop circuitry that can easily be adjusted for use in any application.

[0008] These objects, among others, are achieved by a phase locked loop circuit in accordance with claim 1 and by a method for controlling an oscillator within such phase locked loop circuit in accordance with claim 7.

[0009] In accordance with the invention a phase locked loop circuit is provided comprising a phase detector receiving as input a reference signal and an oscillator signal and detecting a phase difference between them and thereafter outputting a phase error signal based on the detected phase difference The circuit further comprises a loop filter section connected to the phase detector and used for filtering the input error signal. The loop filter section is in turn connected to a voltage controlled oscillator the output of which is fed back into the phase detector. The loop filter section is a digital loop filter section comprising digital filtering means and a digital to analog converter. The loop filter of the phase-locked loop circuit is thus implemented digitally instead of using traditional analog components. The chip area required for such a digital loop filter is substantially smaller than an analog equivalence and can be implemented on a single integrated circuit die together with an oscillator, phase detector and possible counters. There is thus no need for the use of external components, greatly simplifying the design and manufacture of the circuit, and having reduced assemblage costs. Further, by means of the digital filter the loop dynamics are also easily changed.

[0010] In accordance with an embodiment of the invention the loop filter section of the circuit further comprises an analog to digital converter connected between the phase detector and the digital filtering means. A variable solution is thus provided, enabling the use of a digital or analog phase-detector and giving the designer flexibility to chose devices best suited for a certain application.

[0011] In accordance with another embodiment of the invention the circuit further comprises an anti-alias filter between the digital to analog converter and the voltage-controlled oscillator for preventing aliasing. This filter can be implemented using only a few analog components and thus requiring only limited chip-area.

[0012] In accordance with yet another embodiment of the invention, the digital to analog converter is implemented so as to have a clock signal the duty cycle of which is proportional to a desired control signal V_TUNE. The control signal V_TUNE is fed into the voltage controlled oscillator in order to adjust its frequency. In an alternative the digital to analog converter is implemented so as to have a clock signal being a pseudo-random sequence of zeros and ones. In this embodiment the clock signal has a probability of a one being set proportional to a desired control voltage V_TUNE. In yet an alternative the digital to analog converter has a clock signal the duty cycle of which is varied pseudo-randomly for each period, and wherein the duty cycle of the clock signal is proportional to the desired control voltage V_TUNE. The digital to analog converter can thus be implemented in various ways, all in dependence on the spectral requirements of the output from the voltage controlled oscillator. If a single spurious is acceptable, the first alternative is preferably used. If this is unacceptable, but an increased phase noise level can be accepted, the second alternative could be used. Finally, if neither spurious nor increased noise level is acceptable the third alternative could be used. Again, this provides flexibility and gives the designer flexibility to choose devices best suited for a certain application.

[0013] The present invention also relates to a method for controlling an oscillator within a circuit as described above and to a transmitter comprising such circuit, whereby advantages corresponding to the above described are obtained.

Brief description of the drawings

[0014] 

Figure 1 is a block diagram illustrating a prior art phase locked loop.

Figure 2 illustrates a filter section of the phase locked loop of figure 1.

Figure 3 illustrates an embodiment of the present invention.

Figure 4 illustrates another embodiment of the present invention.

Figures 5a-5b are exemplary circuit diagrams suitable for use in the circuit in accordance with the invention.

Figures 6a-6b are graphs illustrating exemplary output signals from a first alternative of a digital to analog converter.

Figures 7a-7b are graphs illustrating exemplary output signals from a second alternative of a digital to analog converter.

Figure 8 is a flow chart over steps included in the method in accordance with the invention.

Detailed description of preferred embodiments

[0015] A first embodiment of the present invention is described with reference to figure 3. A phase locked loop 30 in accordance with the invention comprises a phase detector 31 for performing conventional tasks, i.e. receiving as inputs a reference signal S_reference and an oscillator signal S_oscillator and measuring the phase difference between them. A divider 37 is preferably provided after the voltage controlled oscillator 36 for enabling a dividing of the oscillator signal S_oscillator in a known way. The phase difference detection can be performed in any suitable way, for example by measuring the time between positive edges of the two signals. In the embodiment shown in figure 3, the phase detector 31 is analog and thus outputs an analog error signal S_error. However, the phase detector 31 can alternatively be outputting a digital output, and it can for example be implemented by means of an exclusive OR (XOR) gate, which maintains a 90° phase difference or it can be implemented by means of a simple state machine determining which of the two signals has a zero-crossing earlier or more often.

[0016] In accordance with the invention, rather than using an analog filter section, a digital section 300 is provided. That is, the conventional analog filter elements of the feedback loop of the PLL are replaced with digital circuitry. Briefly, the digital section 300 comprises an analog-to-digital converter 32 (ADC) converting the analog, error signal S_error that is output from the phase detector 31 into a digital error signal Sd_error and a digital filter section 33 for performing a digital filtering of the digital error signal Sd_error. Since the voltage controlled oscillator 36 requires an analog input, a digital-to-analog converter 34 (DAC) is further provided.

[0017] Whereas a conventional analog filter would have an analog charge pump and loop filter capacitor, the present invention utilises a digital filter section 33. The digital filter section 33 can be implemented in any suitable manner. For example, the integrating function can be effectuated by means of an arrangement as shown in figure 5a. An exemplary filtering function is disclosed in figure 5b, in which values of A1, A2, A3 and B1 can be varied in accordance with a desired result, as is well known to a person skilled in the art. The digital error signal Sd_error can hence be manipulated in a desired manner. Thus, when replacing the analog filtering components, i.e. the charge pump and loop filter, with digital components, the filter path can be made adjustable or programmable in a way that an analog filter cannot.

[0018] An anti-alias filter 35 will generally be needed after the digital section 300 (after the DAC 34) for preventing aliasing, i.e. for preventing analog signals from becoming aliases of one another when sampled. An anti-aliasing filter 35 is analog, usually being a low-pass filter and comprising a resistor and capacitor. However, if the update rate or sampling rate of the DAC 35 is sufficiently high the anti-aliasing filter 35 can be accomplished by means of only a few analog components, whereby the area required for implementation of the anti-aliasing filter is small.

[0019] In accordance with another embodiment of the invention, illustrated in figure 4, the ADC 32 of the phase locked loop 30 of figure 3 is omitted, resulting in the digital filter section 300'. The phase detector 41 is in this embodiment implemented as a digital phase detector, outputting directly a digital error signal Sd_error, which digitally encodes the phase difference between the reference signal S_reference and the VCO 36 output clock signal. Such digital phase detector 41 can for example be implemented as a XOR gate, as was mentioned above, thereby eliminating the need for an ADC 32 and rendering the phase locked loop circuit 30 further yet smaller.

[0020] Next, the digital to analog converter DAC 34 will be described. In short, the DAC 34 receives as input the digital representation of the digitally filtered control signal, which is based on the input phase error, converts this digital representation into an analog signal and outputs an analog control signal V_TUNE. The DAC 34 of both embodiments and the ADC 32 of the embodiment shown in figure 3 are preferably a 1-bit DAC and ADC, respectively. Generally, a one-bit DAC is a circuit that translates a binary number into a pulse train whose duty cycle, that is, the fraction of time that the signal is high, is proportional to the binary input. In the present case, the binary input is the digital control signal Sd_control. This pulse train is then converted into an analog signal by averaging it over time with a low-pass filter. The output from the 1-bit DAC is thus a stream of pulses or a bit stream. The frequency of the bit stream decides the complexity and size of the filter design, and therefore the DAC 34 in accordance with the invention is preferably a one-bit DAC.

[0021] It is understood that a four-bit DAC or a DAC having any other resolution can be utilised in alternative embodiments. However, by using a one-bit converter 32, 34 the complexity and space requirements of the circuitry are minimised, thereby improving the overall BOM of the phase locked loop circuit 30. The noise level of a one-bit DAC is dependent upon the speed at which it operates and the lower noise levels that are required the higher clock speeds are needed. The update rate of the converters 32, 34 should be so high as to enable the use of a simple one pole analog filter, that is, an analog filter having one capacitor and one resistor. The one pole analog filter should be able to reduce the spurious emissions caused by the update rate without influencing the loop dynamics.

[0022] In accordance with the invention, the 1-bit DAC 34 can be implemented in several different ways depending on the spectral requirements of the VCO 36. More specifically, in accordance with the invention, the duty cycle of the DAC 34 can be implemented in various ways, which will now be described.

[0023] In accordance with a first alternative, if a single spurious voltage is acceptable in view of the spectral requirements of the VCO 36, the DAC 34 can be implemented as a high frequency digital clock signal having a frequency 1/T₁ and with a duty cycle that is proportional to the desired control signal V_TUNE, that is V_TUNE = T₂/T₁, where T₂ is the on-time or period of time that the value of the signal is a "1" or high. The fundamental of the clock will be filtered in the analog filter but some amplitude will be left causing a single tone spurious at each side of the carrier. Figures 6a and 6b illustrate exemplary output signals. Figure 6a shows a control signal V_TUNE having a low value. The duty cycle has the above-described on-time with a short period T₂ and the off-time accordingly has a longer period T₁-T₂, whereby the output from the DAC represent the desired control signal V_TUNE. Figure 6b shows a V_TUNE having a high value. The on-time therefore has a longer period T₂ and the off-time has a shorter period T₁-T₂, whereas V_TUNE is of course still T₂/T₁.

[0024] An alternative to the above-described implementation of the DAC is to implement the DAC as clock signal having a pseudo-random sequence of zeros and ones with a probability of a one being set proportional to the desired control voltage V_TUNE.

[0025] This embodiment can advantageously be used if a single spur is unacceptable, and would yield no discrete spurs. However, this embodiment would give an increased phase noise level and thus an increased adjacent channel interference. Exemplary output signals are shown in figures 7a-7b. Figure 6a illustrates, in a fashion similar to the above-described alternative, the case when the control signal, V_TUNE, is low, and figure 7b illustrates the case when it is high.

[0026] A third alternative of the DAC, suitable if no spurious are acceptable, nor an increased phase noise level close to the carrier, is presented next. The DAC is in this embodiment implemented as a high frequency clock signal where the period T₁ is varied pseudo-randomly for each period. The period T₁ can be set to be varied within a certain predetermined range, as is suitable for the application in question. The duty cycle of the signal is still proportional to the desired control voltage V_TUNE. The output signals will be similar to the graphs illustrated in figures 6a and 6b, but the period T₁ is varied for each period. This will result in a spurious energy that is smeared out in a frequency band centred around 1/average(T₁). The width of the band where the energy is smeared out is dependent on how much and how fast T₁ is changed.

[0027] Figure 8 is a flow chart over steps included in the method in accordance with the invention. The method 100 for controlling an oscillator 36 in a phase-locked loop circuit as described above, comprises a first step (step 110) of outputting, from the phase detector 31, 41, a phase error signal S_error and generating a digital representation of the phase error signal S_error. Next, in step 120, the digital phase error signal S_error is filtered digitally by means of the digital filter section 300, 300'. Subsequently, in step 130 an analog oscillator control signal V_TUNE corresponding to the digitally filtered phase error signal S_error is generated by the digital to analog converter 34. In the step of generating an analog oscillator control signal V_TUNE, the digital to analog conversion can entail implementing the digital to analog converter 34 in different ways, as indicated by the three arrows V₁, V₂ and V₃ between steps 120 and 130. More specifically, the digital to analog converter 34 can have a clock signal the duty cycle of which is proportional to the desired output control signal V_TUNE; it can have a clock signal being a pseudo-random sequence of zeros and ones, wherein the clock signal has a probability of a one being set proportional to a desired control signal V_TUNE; or it can have a clock signal the duty period of which is varied pseudo-randomly for each period and wherein the duty cycle of the clock signal is again proportional to the desired control signal V_TUNE. The control signal V_TUNE is thereafter input to the voltage controlled oscillator 36 for adjusting its frequency as required.

[0028] In summary, by means of the digital loop filter in accordance with the invention a phase locked loop requiring a reduced chip area or BOM can be accomplished. Further, the trimming and/or calibration of the circuit if a modulation is to be added to the VCO 36 can be minimised. Yet another benefit of using a digital filter is that it is easy to accomplish changes of loop dynamics, if such need should arise, and the present invention thus provides a more flexible phase-locked loop circuitry.

Claims

1. Phase-locked loop circuit comprising a phase detector (31, 41) receiving two input signals (S_reference, S_oscillator) and detecting a phase difference between them and outputting a phase error signal (S_error) based on said detected phase difference, wherein said phase detector (31, 41) is connected to a loop filter section (300, 300') filtering the input error signal (S_error), said loop filter section (300, 300') in turn being connected to a voltage controlled oscillator (36), the output (S_oscillator) of which is fed back into the phase detector (31, 41), characterised in that said loop filter section (300, 300') is a digital loop filter section (300, 300') comprising digital filtering means (33) and a digital to analog converter (34).

2. The phase-locked loop circuit as claimed in claim 1, wherein said loop filter section further comprises an analog to digital converter (32) connected between the phase detector (31, 41) and the digital filtering means (33).

3. The phase-locked loop circuit as claimed in claim 1 or 2, wherein an anti-alias filter (35) is provided between said digital to analog converter (34) and said voltage-controlled oscillator (36) for preventing aliasing.

4. The phase-locked loop circuit as claimed in claim 1, 2 or 3, wherein the digital to analog converter (34) has a clock signal the duty cycle of which is proportional to a desired control signal V_TUNE, said control signal V_TUNE being fed into said voltage controlled oscillator (36) in order to adjust its frequency.

5. The phase-locked loop circuit as claimed in claim 1, 2 or 3, wherein the digital to analog converter (34) has a clock signal being a pseudo-random sequence of zeros and ones, said clock signal having a probability of a one being set proportional to a desired control signal V_TUNE said control signal V_TUNE being fed into said voltage controlled oscillator (36) in order to adjust its frequency.

6. The phase-locked loop as claimed in claim 1, 2 or 3, wherein the digital to analog converter (34) has a clock signal the duty period of which is varied pseudo-randomly for each period, and wherein the duty cycle of the clock signal is proportional to the desired control signal V_TUNE. said control signal V_TUNE being fed into said voltage controlled oscillator (36) in order to adjust its frequency.

7. Method for controlling an oscillator (36) in a phase-locked loop circuit, said phase-locked loop circuit comprising a phase detector (31, 41) receiving two input signals (S_reference, S_oscillator) and detecting a phase difference between them and outputting a phase error signal (S_error) based on said detected phase difference, wherein said phase detector (31, 41) is connected to a loop filter section (300, 300') filtering the input error signal (S_error), said loop filter section (300, 300') in turn being connected to a voltage controlled oscillator (36), the output (S_oscillator) of which is fed back into the phase detector (31, 41), characterised in the steps of:

- outputting, from said phase detector (31, 41), a phase error signal (S_error) and generating a digital representation of said phase error signal (S_error),

- digitally filtering, by means of a digital filter section (300, 300'), said digital phase error signal (S_error), and

- generating, by a digital to analog converter (34), an analog oscillator control signal (V_TUNE) corresponding to said digitally filtered phase error signal (S_error).

8. The method as claimed in claim 7, wherein the digital to analog converter (34) has a clock signal the duty cycle of which is proportional to a desired control signal V_TUNE, said control signal V_TUNE being fed into said voltage controlled oscillator (36) in order to adjust its frequency.

9. The method as claimed in claim 7, wherein the digital to analog converter (34) has a clock signal being a pseudo-random sequence of zeros and ones, said clock signal having a probability of a one being set proportional to a desired control signal V_TUNE said control signal V_TUNE being fed into said voltage controlled oscillator (36) in order to adjust its frequency.

10. The method as claimed in claim 7, wherein the digital to analog converter (34) has a clock signal the duty period of which is varied pseudo-randomly for each period, and wherein the duty cycle of the clock signal is proportional to the desired control signal V_TUNE, said control signal V_TUNE being fed into said voltage controlled oscillator (36) in order to adjust its frequency.

Drawing